NASCAR Review: From Daytona To Kansas

Although I have been forced to miss the majority of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season up to the All-Star Race coming up, it doesn’t stop me from doing a review from Daytona to Kansas. While in some cases, the All-Star Race can be considered the halfway point, it is assumed to be a break from the real action and then race for some money come Saturday night. There is so much to discuss within the first 12 races of 2018, and trust me a lot has happened during that time.

While it has turned out to be a battle of manufacturers between Ford and Toyota, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch are the ones responsible for starting it. Harvick is winning that battle for the moment with five wins, three in a row from Atlanta to Phoenix and recently Dover and Kansas. Kyle on the other hand started his own three race winning streak from Texas to Richmond, but has recently fell off all of a sudden finishing 10th or worst in the last three, and still leads in points.

The most common thing that has gone on is “Windowgate”. Some drivers have had the tendency to let their window supports fail in order to gain an advantage, but whether it has helped some drivers did not prove the case necessarily. This trend has cost drivers wins, playoff points, car and crew chiefs you name it and some don’t appear to get the message. Even Dave Moody sounded off about it calling for an overhaul of the penalty system which actually does appear to be a joke.

While it seems surprising that Monster Energy is returning as primary sponsor for only one more year, the future of NASCAR seems to appear in question. There are rumors that the France family are looking to sell their majority of the sport and the current structure of NASCAR may be gone forever, whether they sell or not. Drivers’ recent retirements and long time sponsors leaving the sport have become commonplace and even attendance has dropped since the start.

Even with only 12 races, you can sense that something is terribly wrong within NASCAR, and there is not enough to assume what could be going on behind the scenes. We will have at least another 12 races to hopefully figure this thing out and maybe someone from within the France family will step up. But for now, there is a season to run and we all must carry on.